Could 'milk and cookie disease' be making your child ill ?

By SUZANNAH HILLS

Many children enjoy a glass of milk with a cookie before bed but a doctor has found this popular snack may be responsible for a string of health problems.

Dubbed the 'milk and cookie disease', the combination of sugar and dairy late at night is believed to be the cause of many childhood ailments, including running noses, coughs, sore throats, constipation and fatigue.

Dr Julie Wei, a pediatric otolaryngologist at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Florida, made the connection after treating numerous children with the chronic symptoms.


She initially tried treating her young patients with medications, but it generally had little effect.

After looking further into the individual cases, she found that many of the children frequently ate sugary snacks such as cookies and lots of dairy products including milk before bed.

Dr Wei believed the combination was likely to be causing the food to back up into the stomach, esophagus and throat causing cold-like symptoms.

She asked her patients to stop eating dairy and sugary products before bedtime and found that their symptoms quickly improved significantly.

Dr Wei has called the condition 'milk and cookie disease' and suggests that up to 75 per cent of American children who are otherwise healthy may be suffering from it.

She puts this down to the average American snacking more as they have less time to sit down for proper meals.

She said: 'We’re busy people; no one’s really thinking about what their kids are eating.'

The mother of one patient, five-year-old Jonathan Giambrone, said she has seen a significant improvement in her son's health since she stopped him from snacking late at night and only gave him water before bed on Dr Wei's recommendations.

Becky Giambrone told Fox News: 'It was really hard for him to take in a breath; he sounded like Darth Vader. In a three week period, we noticed a substantial difference.'

Dr Wei recommends that children shouldn't have any snacks or any drinks but water up to two hours before bedtime to avoid food sitting in the stomach.